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How to Hire a Skilled Customer Support Specialist

Want to make your customers happy? Add a customer support specialist to your team. Here’s what you should know about hiring one. 
The key to your success as a company lies in your customers’ happiness.

But between resolving customer concerns to onboarding your growing team and overseeing your entire business, you just don’t have time for yourself anymore.    

The solution? Hire a remote customer support specialist.

Here’s how a customer service specialist can take a big load off your shoulders (and how to hire one):

What does a customer service specialist do?

A customer service specialist helps customers by answering their questions, solving their product or service-related issues, and seeing to it that they have the best experience possible.

Let’s take a closer look at their day-to-day responsibilities:

Reply to customers’ queries and complaints

A customer can reach out for different reasons. They may want to know more about one of your products before buying it or need help figuring out how to use it. There may also be the occasional person who demands a refund or swears they’ll never buy from you again.

As your company’s representative, your customer care specialist’s goal is to address these questions and concerns with the goal of leaving the customer satisfied. That can mean:

  • Sharing product specifications
  • Explaining a certain service in more detail
  • Giving a step-by-step walkthrough on how to install a product
  • Issuing refunds
  • Asking how to do better with products or services

Customer service specialists do all these while being professional, even when a customer is rude or furious. They also reply ASAP. That’s what expert customer service is all about.

Fulfill and keep track of orders

a phone displaying a website

Another task you can delegate to your customer service specialist is managing orders. This includes:

  • Processing orders and returns
  • Sending confirmation emails
  • Double-checking whether orders have reached the right addresses
  • Updating the number of sales

Know products and services by heart

Your customer support specialists are your brand’s representatives. To provide expert customer service, they must know the ins and outs of all your products or services. Otherwise, they won't be very helpful to your customers.

That’s why you should include product walkthroughs during their training. They should also be one of the first to know about new products so that they can get themselves ready.  

Reach out to customers who leave bad reviews

A proactive customer service professional doesn’t wait for a customer to complain to your company directly. They look out for negative comments on places like social media, community forums, and Google Reviews and get in touch with the people who left them.

By reaching out, your customer care specialist can turn these bad reviews around and help your company gain new fans. This doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it’s a huge win.

Compile a list of comments

What are people saying about your company? What do they like? What do they think needs work? What are their most common concerns?

Customer care specialists can take note of these comments and save them for future reference. These will come in handy when you want to refine your brand strategy, launch a new product, or add an FAQ page to your website.

Relay suggestions to concerned teams

two women employees consulting a laptop

Since your customer service specialist has actual one-on-one interactions with customers, your other team members can consult them regarding things like product development and marketing.

For example, if they notice a number of people have the same problem with a product, they can recommend a solution to improve it in the future. Customer care specialists can also give writers feedback about their product descriptions or suggest topics for your social media calendar.

Who needs customer support specialists?

You should hire a customer service specialist if:

  • You own an e-commerce business
  • Your company is growing
  • Your existing virtual assistant has too much on their plate  
  • You can’t respond to customers as fast as you used to
  • You need someone to process orders and answer concerns full-time
  • You want to increase customer satisfaction

What are the benefits of hiring a customer service specialist?

Your customers will be happier

Customers like being heard. They like having their concerns resolved and also get excited when their suggestions are implemented in a new product.

Both of these happen when you hire a dedicated customer care specialist. Since their main job is to make sure your customers have an amazing experience, problems will be solved faster. Plus, you get to improve your company’s services or products based on the feedback your audience gives.  

You’ll gain a bigger following

You know what happens when you make your customers happy? They’ll rave about your business to their friends, family, and even random people on the internet. This is known as word-of-mouth marketing, and it has the power to boost your following and sales.

Case in point: a whopping 90% of consumers trust what their friends and family recommend, according to this infographic by Hubspot.

You can take back your time

With someone handling all those queries about your products or services, you finally have room to work on that project you’ve been putting on hold. Or, you know, you can use that free time to catch up with family or read a nice book. It’s up to you!

Customer service specialist job description

Here’s a list of the customer service oriented skills your new team member should have:

  • Background as a customer service specialist or related CS role: Your customer care specialist must have experience in responding to customer questions and concerns. They know their way around irate customers and stay professional even when under pressure.
  • Familiarity with help desk software and CRM tools: They should be a pro at using software like Help Scout, Freshdesk, or Zoho Desk. You may also want them to have a working knowledge of CRM tools like Hubspot and Pipedrive.  
  • The ability to multitask: Since your customer support specialist may be juggling multiple concerns at once, they need to know which to-dos to prioritize first.

  • Great problem-solving skills: Your customer service specialist can encounter new issues every day, so they have to be fast thinkers.
  • Excellent communicator: The ideal customer care specialist has strong written and verbal skills. They must know how to provide expert chat, email, or voice support.
  • Can maintain confidentiality: Customers entrust sensitive information like their contact information and address to your customer service specialist, so they must treat that data with respect.

How to hire a customer support specialist using Shepherd

Going over hundreds of customer care specialist applications can be time-consuming and overwhelming on your own, but when you use Shepherd, it’s a piece of cake. Our headhunter agency specializes in matching business owners like you with talented remote employees in the Philippines.

Here’s how we can help you find the perfect customer support specialist:

Step 1: Tell us about the role you’re looking to fill

What is your ideal customer care specialist like? Share details about the role with us in this form. Include the responsibilities and qualifications the candidates should have.

Step 2: We’ll kick off the search

We’ll get in touch with you to talk more about the customer support specialist position. Then, we’ll introduce you to your project manager. They will be your point of contact during the whole process.

After the call, the search begins. Our talent assessors and scouts will be on the lookout for professionals that meet your requirements. They’ll make sure each candidate passes a thorough screening process before presenting the final list to you.

Step 3: Pick from our shortlisted candidates

Our team will send you a list of the top candidates. We’ll give you time to look at their profiles and pick your favorites. As soon as you’ve decided which ones to interview, we’ll coordinate schedules with the candidates.  

Step 4: Say hello to your new customer care specialist

Once you’ve chosen the best customer service specialist to join your team, we’ll hand off the relationship to you. You can then begin the onboarding process and gradually delegate tasks to them.

Learn more: How we helped an eCommerce holding company hire a full-time customer experience specialist

Customer service specialist salary

Typically, a customer support specialist in the Philippines earns $800 - 1,500 a month, full-time. The exact rate will depend on their experience and scope of work, but it’s around 80% less than hiring someone locally.  

Check out this guide for more info about salaries for remote Filipino workers.

Ready to hire a remote customer support specialist?

If you want to keep your customers and attract new ones, then you better make expert customer service a top priority for your business.

Having a customer support specialist on your team will definitely help. They’ll see to it that concerns are addressed and provide data-backed suggestions to improve your overall product, sales, and marketing efforts.

Get in touch with us now to start the search for your new customer care specialist.  

FAQs about hiring a customer support specialist

What are the tasks of a customer service specialist?

A customer support specialist is responsible for:

  • Replying to customers’ queries and complaints
  • Fulfilling and keeping track of orders
  • Knowing products and services by heart
  • Reaching out to customers who leave bad reviews
  • Compiling a list of common comments
  • Relay suggestions to concerned teams
What skills should a customer support specialist have?

Your customer care specialist should have soft and hard skills like:

  • Familiarity with help desk software and CRM tools
  • The ability to multitask
  • Great problem-solving skills
  • Excellent written and verbal communication
  • The ability to stay confidential at all times
How much should you pay customer care specialists?

The average customer service specialist salary ranges from $800 to $1,500 per month. You may need to offer a little extra if you’re looking for a more tenured employee, but it’s worth the investment.

Get the hiring guide here

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